Dr. Jin-Heon Jung, 2009-2017

Jin-Heon Jung is now at the Department of History and Cultural Studies, Freie Universität Berlin.

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Jin-Heon Jung is a sociocultural anthropologist working on Korean Christian global networks. He studied Korean Literature and Cultural Anthropology in Seoul, Korea, and finished his PhD in Anthropology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His dissertation, 'Free to Be: North Korean Migrants and South Korean Evangelical Church,' shows that, while past anticommunist regimes have publicly celebrated North Korean defectors as national heroes and heroines, today they are empowered to criticize the North in the evangelical church and within the logic of conversion. Dr Jung's interests lie in Christianity/religions, nationalism, refugee, human rights, multiculturalism, global capitalism and public anthropology. Jin-heon has also worked as a program director at an NGO making alternative education programs for young North Korean migrants in Seoul, Korea.

Research projects:

• The post-division (Christian) citizenship: the Christian encounters of North Korean migrants and South Korean Protestant Church (completed)
• Religious-Ideological Competition and Development in Cold War Cities: Seoul, Berlin & Pyongyang (completed)
• Urban aspirations in (post)cold war capitals: Seoul-Berlin in comparative anthropology (completed)